We've always been told that every planet in our solar system revolves around the sun
Well this is actually in correct. Ill try break it down to make it as simple as possible.
When a small object orbits a large object, they actually orbit their center of gravity.
So for instance when the earth orbits the sun, the center of gravity between these two lie pretty much at the center of the sun because of the massive mass the sun has. Therefor making it seem like the earth it self is orbiting the sun which in fact it orbits their center of gravity.
Another Example is the ISS ( International Space Station ) and the earth. Due to the difference is mass between the ISS and the earth, their center of gravity is nearly perfectly in the center of the earth and therefor creates a perfect orbit around earth.
This is were the term barycenter comes in
What is a barycenter?
Well taken directly from wikipedia it states that
is the center of mass of two or more bodies that are orbiting each other, or the point around which they both orbit. It is an important concept in fields such as astronomy and astrophysics. The distance from a body's center of mass to the barycenter can be calculated as a simple two-body problem.
source
So now this leads us to Jupiter
Jupiters' mass is so great that it has 2.5 times the mass of all the other planets in the entire solar system combined. This means that the center of gravity of the these two giants(Jupiter and the Sun) is actually 1.07 solar radii from the center of the sun, so its 7% of the suns radius away from the surface.
Below is a gif to further explain this ( This is not to scale)
Source
So next time some one tells you all the planets revolve around the sun, make a bet out of it and get yourself a free beer ;)
If you enjoyed my post and learnt something please follow me @warrensteem
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barycenter
http://www.iflscience.com/space/forget-wha-you-heard-jupiter-does-not-orbit-the-sun/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3713729/Jupiter-DOESN-T-orbit-Sun-Planet-s-massive-size-causes-orbit-point-just-sun-s-surface.html
http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/693961/Jupiter-the-sun-NASA-image-gif
Even when the mass ratio is yuge there is a little wiggle. When you look at that wiggly sun and jupiter orbit, does it make you wonder how wiggly all the orbits must be? The earth and all other planets are affected by jupiter, and to some extent saturn and uranus.
Also, did you know it only takes 3 orbiting bodies to make a randomness that makes very long term predictions of motion quite difficult. And even at 4 light years away our sun wiggles a bit also from proxima centauri, the nearest (nearly invisible) star.
Oh, also, did you know moving mass around the earth's surface wiggles even the spin of the earth? Tiny amounts, yes, but Newton ftw (equal and opposite)
The universe is very wiggly.
I didn't know this! Thank you :D
The Earth and Moon have this too and possibly to a larger degree. I think this relates to why we get high tides on the side away from the Moon.
Great stuff. Never thought about this before. So this could be one reason for natural longterm climate cycles on earth?